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HavenWorks.com/water/archive/2003 |
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- Water Archive
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ARCHIVES NEWS Water News History Archives Water Archives 2002 Water News Archive Water News |
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- 
- "High
Court Rules For Va. Over Md. In Water Dispute: Potomac
Battle Dates Back Centuries." ... "The Supreme Court yesterday settled
a centuries-old dispute over control of the Potomac River in favor of Virginia,
ruling that Maryland has no right to regulate the commonwealth's withdrawals
of drinking water from the river." ... "By a vote of 7 to 2, the justices
essentially affirmed what a court-appointed special master had already
decided: that although an 1877 arbitration decision affirmed Maryland's
sovereignty over the entire riverbed, it also preserved Virginia's rights
to extend water-intake pipes into the middle of the stream -- and Virginia
had not forfeited those rights by submitting to some Maryland regulation
in recent years." (1, 2)
-By Charles Lane and Maria Glod with contributions
by Craig Whitlock -WashingtonPost
- 
Christmas
News
- "Powerful
storm buries Northeast in foot of snow." ... "The
finale of a powerful, two-day storm roared across the New York metropolitan
area and played out over the Northeast yesterday, burying parts of the
region in a foot of snow that set records, slowed travel, challenged Christmas
shoppers and transformed the landscape into vistas as uncluttered as early
maps of America." ... "The snowstorm, a 450-mile-wide galaxy swirling counterclockwise
on satellite pictures and a thing of awesome beauty on the ground, was
the biggest on record for early December in New York, and it packed the
wallop of heavy-duty winter blows more typical of January and February."
-NYTimes
and -AP via -SeattleTimes.NWsource
- "Freak
storm drops 5 inches of rain, hail on SoCal commuters."
... ""It was just unbelievable," said National Weather Service meteorologist
Curt Kaplan. He said five inches of rain was recorded in just two hours
in southern Los Angeles [Wednesday night, 20031112],
nearing the previous record for the area of 5.9 inches "but that
was in an entire day." Skies mostly cleared overnight."
-AP via -USATODAY
- 
- "EPA
to ease sewage treatment rules." ... "The Bush administration
is shifting policy so cities and towns can skip a required treatment procedure
for sewage they pump into rivers, lakes and coastal waters during high
rains." ... "The Environmental Protection Agency plans to propose the policy
change this week, and there will be 60 days for public comment before it
can be finalized." -By Peter Eisler
-USATODAY
Karl
Rove - 
Gordon
Smith - 
Environmental
- 
Science
- 
Politics
- 
River
- 
Animals
- 
Agricultural
- 
Corporation
- Government
- 
Hatch
Act - 
Law
- 2002
Election - 
WVa
- California
- Portland
- 
Oregon
- "Oregon
Water Saga Illuminates Rove's Methods With Agencies."
... "In a darkened conference room, [Republican President Bush] White House
political strategist Karl Rove was making an unusual address to 50 top
managers at the U.S. [United States] Interior Department. Flashing color
slides, he spoke of poll results, critical constituencies -- and water
levels in the Klamath River basin." [The Klamath River runs from Oregon
into California] ... "At the time of the meeting, in January 2002, Mr.
Rove had just returned from accompanying [Republican] President Bush on
a trip to Oregon, where they visited with a Republican senator facing re-election
[2002]. Republican leaders there wanted to support their agricultural base
by diverting water from the river basin to nearby farms, and Mr. Rove signaled
that the administration did, too." ... "Three months later, Interior Secretary
Gale Norton stood with [Oregon Republican Senator] Sen. Gordon Smith in
Klamath Falls and opened the irrigation-system head gates that increased
the water supply to 220,000 acres of farmland -- a policy shift that continues
to stir bitter criticism from environmentalists and Indian tribes." ...
"Though Mr. Rove's clout within the administration often is celebrated,
this episode offers a rare window into how he works behind the scenes to
get things done. One of them is with periodic visits to cabinet departments.
Over the past two years Mr. Rove or his top aide, Kenneth Mehlman -- now
manager of Mr. Bush's re-election campaign -- have visited nearly every
agency to outline White House campaign priorities, review polling data
and, on occasion, call attention to tight House, Senate and gubernatorial
races that could be affected by regulatory action." ... "On [January] Jan.
5, Mr. Rove accompanied the president to an appearance in Portland [Oregon]
with Mr. Smith. The president signaled his desire to accommodate agricultural
interests, saying "We'll do everything we can to make sure water is available
for those who farm."" ... "The next day, Mr. Rove made sure that commitment
didn't fall through the cracks. He visited the 50 Interior managers attending
a department retreat at a Fish and Wildlife Service conference center in
Shepherdstown, W.Va. [West Virginia] In a PowerPoint presentation Mr. Rove
also uses when soliciting Republican donors, he brought up the Klamath
and made clear that the administration was siding with agricultural interests."
...
"His remarks weren't entirely welcome -- especially by officials grappling
with the competing arguments made by environmentalists, who wanted river
levels high to protect endangered salmon, and Indian tribes, who depend
on the salmon for their livelihoods. Neil McCaleb, then an assistant Interior
secretary, recalls the "chilling effect" of Mr. Rove's remarks. Wayne Smith,
then with the department's Bureau of Indian Affairs, says Mr. Rove reminded
the managers of the need to "support our base."" [note: the Hatch Act prohibits
political activities in federal offices.] ... "A National Marine Fisheries
Service biologist, Michael Kelly, has asked for protection under federal
"whistle-blower" laws, saying he was subjected to political pressure to
go along with the low-water plan and ordered to ignore scientific evidence
casting doubt on the plan. This month, a federal judge ruled the administration
violated the Endangered Species Act in the way it justified the water diversion."
-By Tom Hamburger -WallStreetJournal
via -OregonWild.org
-
-
- "Experts
raise red flag over oceans: U.S., others urged
to overhaul pollution, fishing policies." ... "Making waves like never
before, conservationists this week issued appeals for mankind to save its
oceans and the marine life that live there, from pollution, overfishing
and too many people. The biggest waves came from a report — released
Wednesday after three years in the making — that urges the United States
to overhaul an ocean policy dating back to 1969 and reflecting what it
calls a “frontier mentality.”" ... "Having "Focused on oceans as a frontier
with vast resources ... we have failed to conceive of the oceans as our
largest public domain, to be managed holistically for the greater public
good,” the Pew Oceans Commission report concluded." ... "Financed by the
nonprofit Pew Charitable Trusts, the commission billed its work as the
most thorough review of U.S. ocean policy since 1969, when another commission
laid out what was to become guiding principles." -By
Miguel Llanos -MSNBC
- 
- "EPA faulted
on water pollution: Internal watchdog says
computer monitoring system is faulty." ... "In a report dated May 20, the
Office of Inspector General criticized the agency for devoting insufficient
funds to upgrade the Permit Compliance System, or PCS."
-AP via -MSNBC
- 
-
-
-
- "Grim
Future for World's Water." ... "World water reserves
are drying up fast and booming populations, pollution and global warming
will combine to cut the average person's water supply by a third in the
next 20 years, the United Nations said on Wednesday." ... "A report published
by the U.N. on Wednesday ahead of the Third World Water Forum in Kyoto,
Japan, criticized political leaders for failing to take action and, in
some cases, disputing the very existence of a water crisis."
-Wired
Desalination
News and Definition.
Desalination
-
- Water
- "Calif.
Studies Making Sea Water Drinkable." ... "For the
most part, desalination has long been prohibitively expensive as a source
of drinking water in California. But rising demand, dwindling supply, and
new technology that makes it cheaper to take the salt out of sea water
are changing the economics of desalination." ... "The basic process of
desalination is not new. Salt water is pumped through filters under high
pressure, squeezing out minerals. Israel and Kuwait have relied on desalination
for decades, as have military vessels and cruise ships." ... "Since the
late 1980s, the price of taking salt out of sea water has dropped from
nearly $2,000 an acre-foot to $800 per acre-foot, said Walter Winrow, vice
president of Poseidon Resources." -AP
via -Guardian.co.uk
-
- Water
- "Time
Runs Out For Calif. Water Plan; Cuts Likely: State
Misses Deadline on River-Use Limit." ... "Under pressure from the Bush
administration and other western states, California water agencies did
not meet a federal deadline tonight [20021231]
to create a plan to limit their use of the Colorado River. Soon, California
consumers and farmers may see their flow from the river slashed." ... "For
decades, California has taken more than its legal allotment of water from
the river, which it shares with six other western states -- all now getting
thirstier. California is allowed by law to take about 4.4 million acre
feet of water from the Colorado, but in many years it uses about 5.2 million
acre feet from the river. States like Arizona and Nevada want their water
back." ... ""We no longer have abundant surpluses and full reservoirs,"
Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton said earlier this month. "The era of
limits is upon us. The future of the Colorado River will be shaped by drought
and population growth."" -By
William Booth -WashingtonPost
- Water
- "Discord
threatens water deal: Southern California facing
reduction in supply this month." ... "A farm water district near California's
border with Arizona approved a historic deal Tuesday night to sell billions
of gallons of water to thirsty San Diego. But squabbles with other water
agencies over the details made it likely the Bush administration will reject
the plan and cut off a large amount of Southern California's water supply
starting this month." ... "The battle highlights a trend that many experts
say is inevitable: As cities in the arid West continue to grow, they will
look to agriculture for much of their water." -By
Paul Rogers -MercuryNews
-BayArea
